Many foldable blanks are known which are used to create a box or other suitable support for transporting food products such as pizza. Most of these known arrangements, however, are not suitable for transporting a single slice of pizza, such as when hot pizza is sold by the slice in shopping malls and the like. More specifically, the known arrangements either have not possessed a structure suitable to permit convenient handling of a single slice of pizza and eating thereof if desired, and/or have possessed a structure which is more complex and hence more expensive then desired, or have been unable to provide the necessary stiffness and support required when transporting an object such as a slice of hot pizza.
Examples of prior structures are shown in the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,836,593, 4,811,846, 4,798,323, 4,492,333, 2,452,969, 1,353,689, 1,158,046 and 798,264.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved carrier or tray for supporting a food product such as a slice of hot pizza, which carrier or tray can stably and safely support such product and can be economically and efficiently constructed and assembled, and hence overcome many of the disadvantages associated with known arrangements.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a tray designed specifically for transporting a single slice of pizza while facilitating use of the tray as a support so that the piece of pizza can be removed from and repositioned on the tray during eating thereof. The tray includes a generally triangular bottom wall and a pair of low-height side walls which extend along opposite identical side edges of the bottom wall. The side walls directly latch together. The other or base edge of the tray is open to facilitate movement of a piece of pizza either onto or off of the tray. The tray is formed from a flat blank constructed preferably of corrugated paperboard, with fold lines separating the low side walls from the bottom wall so that the side walls can be folded upwardly to be generally perpendicular to the bottom wall. One of the side walls has a latching tab integrally associated therewith and foldable relative thereto so as to wrap around one end of the other side wall for insertion into an elongate slot which extends along the fold between the other side wall and the bottom wall to latch the tray in its assembled position.
According to the present invention, the blank defining the tray described above is preferably created by suitable scoring a larger circular blank so that a plurality of identical generally triangular blanks can be created from each circular blank so as to facilitate and economize initial manufacture and shipping of the circular blank, while at the same time permitting easy separation of the individual triangular blanks and assembly thereof into the desired trays.
According to a preferred variation of the present invention, the carrier has a flange or base wall joined along the base edge of the bottom wall through a suitable fold, and this base wall is joined through a further generally parallel fold to a generally triangular top wall. This top wall has side flanges joined along opposite side edges thereof through suitable fold lines. This variation of the tray is initially formed as a flat blank, preferably of corrugated paperboard, and can be folded to define a generally closed carrier suitable for carrying a single slice of hot pizza. The carrier is folded about the opposite edges of the base wall so that the top and bottom walls generally overlap one another. The side flanges on the top wall are adapted to nest downwardly over the side walls associated with the bottom wall, and the nesting side flanges are provided with vertical notches or cuts which result in adjacent portions of each of the side flanges being slightly sidewardly deflected so that the cuts effectively interfit and create a nesting and locking engagement between the nested side flanges and walls associated respectively with the top and bottom walls. The side walls also have a latching tab integrally provided on one thereof and engageable with a slot which is formed along the fold between the other side wall and the bottom wall.
Other objects and purposes of the invention will be apparent to persons familiar with structures of this general type upon reading the following specification and inspecting the accompanying drawings.